Sahel region - The African Mirror

Mar

2021

91 die as militant wreak havoc in Sahel region

ISLAMIC militants continue to wreak havoc in the Sahel region, where they have, in separate attacks, killed over 91 people, abducted school children, teachers and displaced thousands. In separate recent incidents, the militants, linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State, have launched attacks in Nigeria, Niger and Mali. MALI On Tuesday, the militants ambushed an army convoy and killed 33 near the town of Tessit, in Mali’s northern Gao region, according to the Malian Defence Ministry. NIGERIA On Monday, gunmen on motorbikes stormed a primary school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Kaduna and kidnapped three teachers but no children,…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Morocco sees Sahel jihadists as magnet for local cells

NEWS

JIHADIST groups in the nearby Sahel region, which recruit and train their followers online, represent Morocco's biggest militant threat, the head of its counterterrorism agency said. Although Morocco has had only one major attack over the past decade - the 2018 killing of two Scandinavian tourists - its location "makes it a target for the Sahel groups" said Haboub Cherkaoui. "The terrorist threat persists as long as there are groups that recruit and train their followers online including Islamic State in the greater Sahara," he told Reuters in an interview. Since it was set up in 2015, Cherkaoui's Central Bureau…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

More soldiers sent into the Sahel

NEWS

MADJIARA NAKO and MICHEL ROSE FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron ruled out an immediate reduction of French troops battling Islamist militants in the Sahel region of West Africa on Tuesday, saying a rushed exit would be a mistake. Macron said he was pushing back a decision on a troop reduction after a virtual summit of the five Sahel countries and their allies, during which Chad announced the deployment of 1,200 troops to complement 5,100 French soldiers in the area. "Significant changes will undoubtedly be made to our military system in the Sahel in due course, but they will not take place…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

France to pull some troops out of Sahel

NEWS

JOHN IRISH PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron has opened the door to withdrawing some troops from Africa's Sahel region, saying France could "adjust" its operations after successes against Islamist militants and the arrival of more European forces. France, the former colonial power, has the West's largest military presence waging counter-insurgency operations in Mali and the wider Sahel, an arid region of west Africa just below the Sahara desert. Last year, Paris boosted its troop numbers for its Barkhane counter-terrorism operations by 600 to 5,100 soldiers. "The temporary reinforcements that I decided to deploy have enabled the Barkhane force to put in great…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Burkina Faso President Kabore vows reconciliation during second term

NEWS

BURKINA Faso President Roch Marc Kabore has vowed to bring together the West African nation torn by violent Islamist militant attacks as he embarks on his second and final five-year term. Kabore was sworn into office in a ceremony attended by nearly a dozen peers from the region following his victory in a November 22 presidential election which he won with 57.87% of the vote. Once a stable country in the turbulent Sahel region, landlocked Burkina Faso has been sucked into a violent security crisis during much of Kabore's first term. The crisis has also overwhelmed much of West Africa…